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Nathan Ellington
Nathan Ellington is a forward who spent three years at Rovers, from 1999 until 2002. He had impressed on the non-league scene for Walton & Herhsam, and despite interest from a number of other league clubs he signed for Rovers in February 1999 for a transfer fee of £150,000. He was one of a number of successful Rovers players picked up from non-league clubs around this time, along with the likes of Barry Hayles and Steve Foster. After initially being a backup at the club to provide backup to first choice strikers Jamie Cureton and Jason Roberts, he went on to become one of the best players for Rovers during what was a lean spell for the club. He was the club's top scorer for the two seasons following the departures of Roberts and Cureton, with fifteen league goals in both the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons, despite leaving to join Wigan Athletic before the end of the 01-02 campaign. He left Rovers in March 2002 to join Wigan for a transfer fee of £1,200,000 – more than a million pounds more than the Pirates had paid to sign him. at the Memorial Stadium]] Perhaps his most famous performance in a Rovers shirt came on 6 January 2002 in the FA Cup, when the Gas were playing Premiership side Derby County at Pride Park in the third round. Ellington scored a hat-trick in the game, and led Rovers to a 3–1 victory. After leaving Rovers Nathan converted to Islam following the conversion of his brother, Jason, and meeting his now wife Alma, who is a Bosnian Muslim. In 2008 he expressed an interest in playing for the Bosnian national team, but it is unlikely he would fulfill FIFA's eligibility requirements. He also qualifies to play for Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, as well as England. Career Nathan played youth football for Tooting & Mitcham United, and in 1997 made his first and only senior appearance for the club. The lack of chances in the first team caused him to leave the club in search of regular football and he joined Walton & Hersham, where he was to make his mark on non-league football and attract the attention of a number of league clubs. He spent approximately 18 months with Walton & Hersham, before joining Rovers in February 1999. Following his successful spell in Bristol, Ellington moved to Wigan Athletic in 2002, where he spent over three years and played in 134 league games and in 2004 was reunited with his former Rovers strike partner Jason Roberts. In the summer of 2005 Nathan made a £3,000,000 move to West Bromwich Albion, and after two years at the Hawthorns he was taken to Watford for a fee of £3,250,000. He failed to make a major impact on the Watford team upon joining, however, and was sent out on loan to Derby County for the 2008-09 season. In 2010 he joined his first non-English team, when he spent the latter part of the 2009–10 season on loan with Greek side Skoda Xanthi and he returned there for the first half of the following season, returning to Watford in January 2011, but financial problems at The Hornets, coupled with the fact that another appearance would trigger an extra payment to West Brom as part of his previous transfer deal meant that the only option Watford had was to offload him again. Although Bristol Rovers made an approach to take him on loan, he instead went to Preston North End for the second half of 2010–11. He signed for Ipswich Town in the summer of 2011 and went on to make 15 league appearances, 14 of which were from the bench, without scoring a single goal in his first season at Portman Road. Things didn't improve during his second season, and after two more substitute appearances in September 2012 he was sent out on loan to Scunthorpe United. He left Ipswich during the January 2013 transfer window, and eventually signed for Crewe Alexandra just over a month later. Career stats Category:Players Category:Forwards Category:2 July Category:Players born in 1981 Category:Players who joined in 1999 Category:Tooting & Mitcham United Category:Walton & Hersham Category:Wigan Athletic Category:West Bromwich Albion Category:Watford Category:Derby County Category:100+ league appearances Category:50+ league appearances Category:Skoda Xanthi Category:Preston North End Category:Ipswich Town Category:Scunthorpe United Category:Crewe Alexandra